


What Does the Domesticated Amazon Fight For?

by ngeonger



Category: Kamen Rider Amazons
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, F/M, princess carry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 10:11:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7263775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ngeonger/pseuds/ngeonger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a conversation with Mizuki over the payphone, Haruka found his motivation which Shido thought he lacked.</p>
<p>[Another take on Episode 6 featuring fem!Shido.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Does the Domesticated Amazon Fight For?

**Author's Note:**

> As the title suggests, I've shamelessly ripped off KR Drive for shameless lizard hindbrain purposes ;3; 
> 
> Much of the dialogue in the latter half are directly lifted from Over-Time's subs for Episode 6: "For What I Fight".

There was no changing Makoto's verdict about Haruka. She repeated the salient points of what she had told him by the river, now all the more salient with what Haruka had done in the tunnel. She had not planned to say another word to him until she noticed Fuku staying behind to dust off the magazine which Haruka's adoptive sister had left behind and handing it over to Haruka.

Makoto noted for the nth time on what a natural mother hen Fuku was. Mothering Haruka ought to be Director Misuzawa's job, but Makoto didn't disapprove of Fuku's kindness. Yet one thing Fuku had failed to take into account was that handing Haruka the reminder of his adoptive sister was like handing him a free pass to stay where he was and mope all day.

Sure enough, when Makoto turned back to check, Haruka was still kneeling on the ground at the side of the tunnel while holding the magazine with both hands. His blank stare on the cover made it clear that his mind was occupied with wallowing over recent regrets.

Makoto sighed and reached into her pocket for some loose change which she dropped onto the magazine. As the coins rebounded onto the ground, Haruka raised his head.

"Use that to call someone to pick you up," Makoto said. "We don't have any more drivers to spare."

Even though this time Haruka promptly did what he was told, his chance of being an official member of the extermination team remained close to zero.

* * *

Haruka was lucky that coin-operated payphones have yet to become obsolete in Tokyo. After riding around for some time, he found a booth in front of a convenience store. He followed the instructions on the nearly faded sticker beside the phone buttons to call home. It was a good thing that he was made to memorize the Mizusawa home number just in case.

He pressed his ear against the green phone handle, the ringing tone matching the jittery rhythms of his heart. He held in his breath when he heard someone pick up and then Mizuki's voice saying, "Hello."

"M-Mizuki."

Haruka's voice shook as he exhaled.

"Haruka? Where are you now? I'll go out again and get you."

"No, Mizuki," Haruka quickly said. "I'm not coming home. Not for a while."

"It's dangerous out there alone--"

"More dangerous than the monster in the tunnel? More dangerous than…than the monster I became to kill that monster?"

Haruka held back his tears as he asked his question. As he expected, Mizuki was silent, having no answer to it.

Eventually, she said, "Haruka, you're not a monster."

"That's what mother told me too," Haruka said. "But I need to find out for myself, what I am and am not. I can't do that while being locked up at home. I won't be happy…I won't be happy until I know for sure that I won't hurt you."

His words seemed to be doing the opposite in wounding Mizuki with his determination to not go home. He was about to apologize when Mizuki spoke again.

"I understand. I too won't be happy if you're not happy," Mizuki said, sounding to be on the verge of tears as well. "I'll still wait for you to come back. I'll make sure to take care of the fishes. We'll wait together."

In the midst of his troubles, Haruka had completely forgotten about the fishes he had left back home. He didn't dare to admit this to Mizuki and instead asked for her to talk about how the fishes were doing. The flow of their painful conversation was rechanneled in the smoothest way possible as Mizuki talked about the fishes, of thinking about them in class and of writing a short essay on aquariums for her English homework.

Her comforting words were broken by loud, successive beeps that made Haruka flinch from the phone handle. He had no idea what was happening.

"Mizuki, where's that noise coming from?" Haruka asked.

"Are you using a payphone? Quick, put more coins in the machine!"

Haruka kept inserting the coins which Shido had given him until the beeping stopped. When they resumed their conversation, Haruka detected a sense of gravity in Mizuki's tone. She seemed to have given their earlier subject more thought during the brief interruption.

"Hey, perhaps what you are, perhaps what you can be," Mizuki said, "is a protector. Like when you protected me in the tunnel."

"I know that you became afraid of me," Haruka forced himself to remind her. "Actually, I'm now a little afraid of myself…"

"Now that we've spoken normally, I'm even more sure that Haruka will always be Haruka. Wait, that doesn't really makes sense, does it?"

Haruka told her that it really didn't with a small bitter laugh. He wished that he didn't need any complicated answers from the world.

"Well, talking about the fishes reminded me of one of the rare times when I fed them," Mizuki continued. "I needed to get more food from the kitchen cupboard's top shelf. I tried standing on a stool and fell. That time, you were right behind to catch me in your arms like I was a princess."

"I doubt that I'm really a prince," Haruka joked.

"Maybe not," Mizuki agreed. "I was still really surprised. You were so strong though you ate so little. Maybe today is a lot like when you caught me, when you showed your hidden self to save me."

"Yeah, only a hundred times more extreme."

Haruka wanted to continue joking about it, but his body froze as he sensed an Amazon causing havoc in the distance. His instinct was the opposite of flight. No, he would fight and he believed that he could find in himself the will to fight to protect, a will he had merely failed to recognize earlier while struggling to keep Mizuki safe.

"Mizuki, I have to go now," Haruka said. "Another monster is attacking people. Please don't leave home for some time."

"Be safe, Haruka."

* * *

One moment Makoto was falling in the air and the next moment she landed in the arms of Mizusawa Haruka. It was too soon for him to appear in her proximity again, but the adrenaline of fighting the awakened Amazon dulled the effect of his sudden appearance.

"This might sound selfish, Shido, but I've figured out what I want," Haruka said, continuing with blunt force the conversation which Makoto had considered closed. "To protect the people I care about, and hunt the ones that threaten them. That's why I want to fight!"

Absorbed in his pitch, he did not seem to notice that he was still holding Makoto. By right, a boy with his lanky frame would not be able to hold a grown woman above the ground and outline his mission statement at the same time. Yet the arms hooked under Makoto's legs and supporting her back was firm enough to lend extra weight to Haruka's words.

"And besides, that other part of me seems to enjoy fighting," Haruka laughed to himself, "So if I ever try to eat someone...if I need to be hunted...I'd rather it be this team than someone like Jin."

He sounded a lot more gentle in this part. More shy, perhaps, in acknowledging and positioning himself as a potential threat that Makoto saw him as. Makoto felt like commending him for understanding that he was a walking risk factor, but doing so would contradict her allowing her to hold him all throughout his pitch.

Up close, she could confirm the sincerity in his eyes. She wondered if he had deliberately chosen to speak while holding her, all the better to prove his steadfastness, but his past awkward behaviour did not hint at such confidence. Furthermore, she doubted that a man who knew what he was doing would talk about eating someone when there was a woman right in his face.

As the sounds of boots clanking on metal approached them, Haruka put Makoto back down on her feet. Fuku and Nozomi soon joined them, ready with weapons drawn to assist Mamoru, who was still grappling with the Amazon. The way sounds echoed in this basement made Makoto positive that the two have overheard all that Haruka had said.

"That's why I want to join you," Haruka affirmed. "I want to hunt vermin! Is that a good enough reason?"

He directed his searing gaze towards Makoto, daring her to reject him again. It made Makoto wish that he had held her a little longer just now, if only for her to put her arm around his neck and make him unable to look her in the eye for some time. She supposed that there will be more chances in the near future to make him burn.

"It'll do for now," Makoto said. "But you're asking a lot from us."

She did owe him once for catching her. And she did spare him some of her extra cash, something she would never do for someone she was instinctively repelled by.

* * *

The four of them watched Haruka pulverize the Amazon from afar.

"You really think we should keep him around?" Nozomi asked.

Makoto didn't feel offended that Nozomi questioned her decision. After all, it was not long ago that Makoto was adamant against including Haruka in their team despite the many benefits he would bring on top of replacing their two dead teammates. Makoto would say that her opinion of Haruka has changed significantly since they met again, but she was not going to vouch for the still developing strengths of his personality any time soon.

"No idea," Makoto said. "But if we have to take him out, we better get a huge bonus."

She somehow knew that no matter what, this boy would bring in as much heartache as cash for the team.

"Shido, that's an ominous smile you have there," Nozomi commented.

See, that was probably due to Haruka's influence. Somehow.

"I did not smile," Makoto said.


End file.
